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Mar 7, 1931
The Literary Digest was an American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac...
/ The Literary Digest was an American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, Public Opinion and Current Opinion.
The magazine gained notoriety when its poll of the 1936 United States presidential election substantially missed the final result, predicting an easy victory for Republican candidate Alf Landon against Democratic incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt: in the election, Roosevelt defeated Landon to win re-election in an unprecedented landslide. The poll's total inaccuracy completely ruined the magazine's reputation, and it ultimately ceased publication in 1938.